Saturday, November 25, 2006

Last year, my mom put three balls of Red Heart Whirly in my Christmas stocking. I thought it was nice of her even though I'm not a huge Red Heart fan. I'm not a real yarn snob. I do prefer natural fibers, but I don't mind acrylic once in a while.

That being said, I decided to cast on for a scarf using that yarn a couple of days ago. I finished it today. It is *very* soft. It still does fell acrylic-y so it's not for everyone but I'm quite happy with it.

I'll post a pic later this week. My camera batteries were used with the Wii remote (the Wiimote!) and now they're dead. I don't own a Wii but my boyfriend has one for a week (he's in charge of the tech page for a newspaper). I'm loving it.

Also, thank to Jo who gave me the tip, I was able to find the 2007 Knitting Pattern a Day and the Stitch N' Bitch 2007 calendars. I had heard not-so-good things about the Pattern a Day one but I must say I really like it. Sure, I think some of the patterns are horrible (personal opinion of course) but some are really nice. The Christmas pillows are especially beautiful. Speaking of Christmas, I gotta warn those who don't celebrate that they won't find many patterns useful for the month of December. I love Christmas though, so I'm happy.

Oh and Jennifer posted a pdf of the Bowling Socks, with permission from Patons. Go download it, they're great!

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Yesterday, I had the chance to hear The Yarn Harlot speak in Montreal. If she ever comes to your city, I suggest you go hear her, she's hilarious.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee as she's about to take a picture of the Montreal knitters with her travelling sock

Unfortunately, I had to leave before she was done, so I didn't get to meet her. I was disappointed because I really wanted to say hi and to get my book signed, but I really couldn't stay.

In other news, here's my progress on the blue cardigan:

All the knitting is done, the shoulders have been seamed as well as one of the sleeves (well it's been attached to the body anyways). I really seriously need to register for a finishing class or workshop. I suck at seaming so bad, my sweaters never look right because of it. No matter how many books I read or how many videos I watch, I can't seem to do it right.

I cast on for Fetching. This should be done quickly. Then again, the Jaywalkers should also have been done quickly and I'm not even at the heel of the second sock yet (I'm almost there though). I don't think I've ever taken so much time to finish a pair of socks. And it's not because I don't like them. I don't know, they just take forever. Speaking of socks, Ms. K. was knitting a fabulous pair yesterday. If you read this, could you tell me what yarn you were using (and where you got it if you remember)? I really need pink socks. :)

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

October is gone and Socktoberfest is now over. I have to say I didn't do as well as I would have liked sockwise. I just didn't feel like knitting socks that much. I'm really looking forward to finally wearing the Jaywalkers though so I'll probably get back into it soon.

I couldn't get online at all yesterday. I realized only this morning that it was because you now have to dial the area code even for local numbers in Montreal. Since I'm still on dial-up (I know, I know...), it affected my Internet connection too. No work and no Internet = lots of time to knit (and the clean the appartment but I somehow prefered to spend the time knitting). I'm happy to say that I finished the left front part of the cardigan. Now I only need to finish the right side and I'll be done. Well after the seaming and stuff.

I already have sweater patterns in mind for my next big project, but it will have to wait a little. I decided that November will be my small project month this year. Why, you ask?

Well this morning I took a big look at my stash. And I realized that I have only a little bit of sock yarn:

With socks, when I decide to start a new pair, I usually take something from my little stash instead of buying something else. So it doesn't accumulate much. With other projects, I usually find that there's nothing interesting enough in the stash so I buy new yarn.

Anyways. I also have a little bit of nice yarn.Navy Zara, Green Galway, Alpaca, more Alpaca, cashmere in a cone...

The nice stuff never sits there long because I can never wait to knit with it.

What I have a lot of (compared to the rest of the stash that is), is acrylic.

(All acrylic or acrylic blends, except for the black cotton in the front). Most of it I bought when I first started knitting or I received as gift. Some of it is very nice. I adore Patons Decor. I have four balls of red Micro Nomotta (or something like that) and two balls of green that I love. I made a baby cardigan with some of the green and it turned out lovely.

Another thing I have A LOT of: leftovers.

I just can't get rid of it. Most of it anyways, as I did throw away some of the smallest bits today.

So yeah. I decided that I'd try to get rid of some of this yarn by making small projects this year. With the holidays coming up (Halloween is over and I've already seen a Christmas-themed commercial on TV), I'm sure I'll be able to find people to give them to.

I made a list of some of the things I have in my stash and matched them with small projects I'd like to make. It goes like this:

Almost full ball of Navy blue Galway: A pair of mittens. I'm pretty sure I'll have enough as I was able to make a pair with one skein of Noro Silk Garden and the Galway skein I have is much bigger.

Patons Decor (1 huge skein + more than half of a second one): Hat + mittens set

Bernat Frenzy (3 skeins, red): Scarf

Caron Jewel Box (3 skeins, red): Scarf

I'd also like to make fuzzy feet with the leftover Wool of the Andes from the Mariah cardigan (I have a lot of it but didn't feel like taking it out of the drawer to take a picture). I also have a few cones of bulky acrylic/wool blends that I'm slowly turning into scarves. Not to mention the yarn from projects that I need to frog...

Of course I don't think I'll be able to finish all this in November (especially the scarves. They may be small but they can take a LONG time to finish). I'll be happy if I can finish 2-3 things. And I'll also finish the cardigan and probably cast on for new socks sometime during the month. But just trying to assign projects to these yarns feels like a step in the good direction.

By the way, if you have any favourite scarf/mittens/hat patterns, feel free to share :)